The passing of electrical current through molybdenum strips to provide a source of heat for a vacuum furnace is well understood and commonly used. However, in the prior art, the heating element is formed into a configuration which resembles the profile of an electric light bulb, that is the strip is not closed at the bottom of its loop or bulbous section but instead has two unconnected ends which are formed into a neck like protrusion from the opening of the bulbous section. The two unconnected ends serve as terminals which are connected to an electrical current supply so that electrical current passes through one terminal, through the open loop and is returned through the other terminal to the electrical current supply source. Such a configuration gives rise to a "cold spot" in the area where the two unconnected ends join the open loop because the loop per se is not radiating heat toward the load at the cold spot area while the workpiece is radiating heat toward the cold spot area. To say it another way, the open section of the loop acts as a heat sink. The workpiece and the heating element both reflect and radiate heat toward the open section of the heating element, i.e. between the unconnected ends because there is a temperature differential between the hot zone encompassed by the open loop portion of the heating element and the open section of the heating element. The "cold spot" causes nonuniform heating of the workpiece and this can be undesirable for at least two reasons. First the loss of heat which should be acting on a portion of the workpiece causes it to be improperly "heat treated." For instance if there were a tray of pieces to be sintered as the workpiece, there would result a number of pieces that were not properly sintered. In the prior art such an infirmity is dealt with by increasing the heat beyond the point necessary to accomplish the heat treating process and such a procedure is critical because increased heat often damages the workpiece. The present invention provides a heating element which eliminates the "cold spot" and the problems arising therewith.